Listen to this articleThe rainbow flag is flying proud in Provincetown, Mass. Recent census results indicate it is the gayest city in the nation with 163 per 1,000 households that are home to gay couples.
Wilton Manors, Fla. (139 of 1,000) and Palm Springs, Calif. (115 of 1,000) followed up to round out the top three queerest towns in the U.S. However, there are some caveats when it came to rating the cities.
First of all, the census does not ask for sexual orientation, so the U.S. Census Bureau at the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School institute only tracked voluntarily-identified same-sex couples. This not only means that gays and lesbians in conservative cities might have hid their sexuality, it also means that single gays were not counted.
Also, not all the data has been collected and released, yet. The Census Bureau is still waiting on North Dakota, New Mexico, Mississippi and Tennessee. While few people would contend that any of those states are home to an enormous gay population, the data is still not complete.
That being said, Provincetown has long been a top vacation destination for many queer tourists from around the world, and is an emerging safe-haven for gays and lesbians. The beachfront resort town is host to many international events including Provincetown Pride and Provincetown Bear Week. Conveniently located in New England not far from Boston and New York, P-Town has developed a strong summer-vacation following and a year-round queer residency.
The other cities that made the top 10 gayest cities include, in order, Rehoboth Beach, Del., Guerneville Calif., West Hollywood, Calif., Pleasant Ridge, Mich., New Hope, Pa., Rancho Mirage, Calif., and Oakland Park, Fla.
Counting the District of Columbia as a state, it has the highest percentages of gay couple households in the nation with 19.3 per 1,000. Vermont follows with 10.9, Massachusetts with 10.2 and California with 9.98. There are approximately 6.7 gay households per 1,000 in Utah.
